Realizing
by Substitute Reality
Summary: Bender finally realizes his true feelings, and after a talk with a friend and walk through town, he is confronted Rated T for use of mature language. benderxleela oh and it is NOT a slash, even though it says it is in the intro


**A/N- Hey people! xXxBenderxXx here! This is my first fanfic ever published and I am really excited!!!!! I love benderleela slashes. Mine is probly not very good, I know Benders**

**character is, in my opinion, quite a bit off, I don't know but in some parts he is very different from original Bender. The story moves fairly quickly, so some things may not make sense unless you make sure you read every word.**

**Main Chars-Bender and Leela (duh)**

**(Oh and if anyone could tell me how to turn of this double spacing thing, that would be really awesome)**

**Disclaimer-I do not own any of the Futurama characters, all credit goes to the masterminds behind the show.**

It was the sound of a police siren passing by outside that woke up the purple-headed cyclops. She grunted softly and looked around, not remembering the past few hours very clearly. She was startled to find that she coudn't move, because she was pinned down by two heavy, grey, metal arms that criss-crossed on her stomache. She moved her head to the side slowly and found that she was laying against the owner of the arms, who's soft snoring was placed behind and slightly above her head. They were on the couch in the Planet Express lounge, the TV buzzed softly beside them. She was in no hurry to get up and turn it off, she was actually very comfortable. She wasn't lying directly on top of him, more like half laying/leaning against him. One of his legs was over the edge of the couch, the other was on the opposite side of Leela. Her hand went up slowly and brushed a peice of hair from in front of her large eye. She looked around the room and smiled slowly as the memories of the past few hours returned to her.

_-6 hours earlier, in the Planet Express ship....-_

"Bender!!!!"

"Huh...what..?"

The gray robot opened his eyes slightly, and looked around. "_Yaawn_...Are we there yet?" he asked groggily, raising his eyes to the angry female captain standing above him.

"Bender, we were there **two** hours ago! We are already back at Planet Express!" she shouted at him.

"Oh...so I missed the mission?" he pondered for a minute, "I still get paid, right?"

Leela sighed, "No you idiot, you do not get paid for doing nothing. I had to do the whole mission by myself because you woudn't get up! I hope you're sorry."

"Well I'm not sorry. I was very tired from my-er-business meeting last night."

"Bender, you were out at the strip club last night."

"So?"

Leela put her hands on her hips and started lecturing Bender about responsibilty, and something about work....Bender wasn't listening. He was staring at Leela intently. Did she do something different with her hair? Makeup? No....but then why did she seem so different? She looked pretty. Wait, wait, wait. What? Did he just call Leela pretty? He didn't even know that word was in his vocabulary. But wait...Leela? Since when did he care what that one-eyed meatbag looked like...?

"-and thats why...wait, Bender? Are you even listening?" At the mention of his name Bender snapped out of his thoughts and, thankfully, back to his old self.

"Nope. Why, were you saying something?"

Leela let out an exasperated sigh and stomped off of the ship, mumbling something that Bender picked up as, "Why do I even bother..."

He snickered and stretched, then sat for a few more moments before getting up to raid the lounges fridge for beer.

He was sitting in the conference room drinking, he would have been sitting on the couch but Fry was sleeping and for some reason Bender wasn't in the mood to push him off or even sucker punch him. He was thinking about the thoughts that had crossed his mind on the ship. About Leela. He was confused. He'd never thought about her like that before...had he? Well, there was that one time she was sitting next to him on the couch, and Bender had felt the wierdest urge to put his arm around her shoulder. Or that other time, when Nibbler ran away for about the thousandth time, Leela was crying and all Bender wanted to do was put his arms around her and comfort her.

"That's... but that's different...though....I mean, that's what friends do right?" he said aloud to himself.

Suddenly a picture apeared in his head, one of his own imagination. It was him and Leela...together. Holding each other close. If Bender had a heart it would have been beating double speed as that picture floated in his mind.

"Aw...who am I kiddin...I think I......I think I like her....ugh....stupid meatbag emotions...I wish I was dead." he rested his head on one hand and closely examined the other. His gray, metal fingers shining dully in the light. He sighed.

He decided to go talk to one of his friends, not Fry though. If Fry knew that Bender had...feelings...for Leela, he would probably stick a couple hundred magnets on his head and then never take them off, there was nothing worse then that. But Bender _did_know the perfect bot to talk to.

Bender knew that his friend would be in the same robot strip club that he was in every Wednsday night. He wasn't one to break a routine like that. Bender pushed through the double doors and walked through the dark, misty building. Ignoring all the whistles and cheers from his fans. He was a king among robots, every bot on Earth had heard of him. He finally found the bot he was looking for. Sitting at a table alone, which was very unusual, seeing as he was famous. The golden plated robot looked up and grunted, obviously upset about something. He slid over to make room for Bender.

"Oh, Bender...woe is me." the acting robot sighed dramatically

Bender decided to be friendly towards his friend, though he was actually annoyed that Calculon hadn't noticed his own distress.

"Calculon, old friend, what, uh, seems to be...um, bothering...you?" Bender found it hard to be nice when so annoyed.

"Bender...oh Bender....I'll never find true love." Calculon sighed. "You see, I met the most beaut-

"Wow buddy thats real sad. Now how about I tell you about my problem, hm?"

Calculon knew that was coming, but it didn't lessen his annoyment **(A/N-Is annoyment a real word? Probably not, I was thinking of the word 'enjoyment', so it made sense at the time)**. He leaned back though, ready to listen to Benders story.

Bender sighed and grew serious, "Calculon...have you ever felt _something _for a...a human female?"

Calculon's eyes widened. "A _human _female? Well Bender, I can't say I have...but please, tell me about this female."

Bender closed his eyes and sighed, again, then told the whole story. He knew that all of the tables around him had gone quiet and were listening but he didn't care. He told them everything, his feelings about her, his thoughts, his dreams. He tried to make it less personal and not to mention anything he thought was to wierd. When he was finished he still had his eyes closed, his hands now gripping a half downed bottle of beer.

"So...there you have it fellas. That's the story of the human chick I love, who, by the way, would never love a bot like me."

He got up and left the club. While walking down the street he thought that maybe the suicide booth would still be open. The he realized he didn't have a quarter on him.

"Dammit!" he yelled, slamming his metal fist against a brick wall, "OW!! Bastard!!"

He sat down against the wall and put his head between his knees.

"Why coudn't I be a meatbag, at least then I could have a god damn chance with her."

He sat for a few more minutes before realizing he was in a bad neighborhood and it woudn't be a good idea to just sit around. He got up and walked until he came across Planet Express, he had been planning to go to his apartment, but he figured he would just spend the night in the office. The fridge was always filled with beer and he could stay up and watch reruns of 'All My Circuits. Without having to keep the volume down so not to wake his meatbag.

He used the hidden key, hidden expertly by the proffessor (not) underneath the welcome mat, and went inside. He was about to raid the fridge for beer when he heard a shuffling sound behind him. He whipped around and threw his fisted hands out into the darkness. Not expecting to actually hit something.

**BANG!!**

His right fist, already sore from hitting the brick wall, collided with something metal. Which hurt. Alot.

"OW!! Dammit! What the hell?!" Bender shouted and pressed a cold beer against his hand.

He was still yelling when he heard a concerned voice from next to him say,

"Oh Bender! Are you alright?"

He stopped yelling and froze. He turned his head slowly to look at her, and when he saw her, well, if he was human he would have blushed deep crimson. They stared at each other a long time. Her one eye locked with his two glassy ones. 'Does she know' Bender thought to himself, 'If she knows then I'm screwed.' His eyes travelled down and he saw that she was holding a metal frying pan protectively in front of her, well, it woudn't be much protection now seeing as it had a giant whole punched through it.

"Oh...ya, ya I'm fine. Why woudn't I be?"

Leela rolled her eye and dropped the frying pan down to her waist.

"Bender, why are you here?" she asked, not breaking the stare

"I was gonna ask you the same thing." Bender retorted, still staring.

"Well...well, I-" she started to reply, but was cut off by a sob. Before Bender knew what was happening, tears were running down her face and she was shaking. She dropped the frying pan and next thing she knew she was wrapped up in Benders arms. He held her and she held him back. She sobbed, "Oh Bender, I was having such a horrible evening...I got dumped and stepped on and offended...oh.." she was again cut off by her sobs. Bender rubbed her back softly not wanted to press to hard and hurt her involuntarily. She shook against him, but having him there seemed to comfort her and after awhile her sobbing was reduced to simple sniffles and small moans. Bender led her to the couch and she sat down beside him.

"So...what happened? I mean, you know, if you want to talk about it with might be here if, well, if you want to talk to him instead, I would understand." Bender mumbled, being very uncharacteristic and not meeting Leela's gaze.

Leela looked at him strangely, then smiled.

"I would much rather talk to _you _then Fry, Bender." she said, then she grew sad again and sniffled. She took a deep breath and told Bender all that had happened, sniffling and wiping her eye with her arm many times as she talked. When she was finished she looked up at him. Her eye was red but she seemed less sad now. She smiled a small, almost shy smile.

"Thank...thank you, Bender...for listening." She reached over and put her warm hand on his cold, metal one.

Benders eyes widened but he didn't pull away. They sat there for awhile, staring at each other.

"Bender...I just want to say...thank you...thank you so much..."

Bender felt so defeated, there was no way he could keep this from her any longer.

"Leela, theres something that I gotta get off my chest...I...I think I like....no, love....I think I love..."

He took a deep breath and said, as fast as he could

"IrthinkIloveyou."

Leela's mouth opened into a small 'O' of suprise and she stared at him. Bender turned his head away and took a sudden intrest in the floor.

After what felt like a long time, Leela reached up slowly and touched the side of Benders head, his eyes widened as she pushed his head gently around to face her.

She leaned in until her face was only inches from his.

"I think I love you to Bender..." she whispered

She pressed her mouth gently onto his cold mouth box, she knew that he coudn't kiss back, but she needed to show him that she was telling the truth.

Bender felt it though, strangly enough he felt the kiss. Warm and loving. He put his arms around her and held her close, not wanting her to break it. He wanted to kiss back, with all his heart, hypothetically speaking, he wanted to kiss back. She knew that. They kissed, well, she kissed, for a few minutes before Bender broke it, worry in his robot eyes.

"You...you really love me? Me? A robot? But...but why don't you love another meatbag...like Fry?"

Leela smiled and nodded, "I really do love you Bender. I care about you, alot. More then Fry or anyone else."

Bender smiled, "More then Fry?"

Leela rolled her eye, but smiled. "Yes Bender, alot more then Fry."

Bender leaned back against the side of the couch, one foot on the floor and one laying beside Leela, a smirk on his face. The next thing he knew Leela was laying on her back against him. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled. His eyes closed and then he was snoring softly. Leela smiled and closed her eyes to. Soon both of them were sound asleep.

The End

I know, I know...it sucked...I cant seem to get Benders character right. I think I was close at some points though...maybe.

Please review!!!!


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